Email Marketing

5 Ways to Create a Secure Email Marketing List

Email Marketing is one of the most powerful tools available that can extend your reach beyond your website and social media marketing, all the while creating new sales opportunities. If you simply pitch sales to customers when they happen upon your site, you have a limited chance of making a sale. If those visitors leave without making a purchase, it’s impossible to tell if they'll return again. But with email marketing, if you build an email marketing list of current and potential customers, you can reach out repeatedly to your prospects with targeted messages.
Here are 5 ways in which to integrate email marketing into your company’s marketing objective and website whilst staying in touch with your prospective clients:
1. Build a form on your home page for clients to opt-in to email marketing.
Perhaps one of the most common and easiest ways to create a list is to create an email marketing opt-in form into your home page and integrate it with your list. To get your prospective’s attention, set your form "above the fold," so visitors can see it immediately and don't have to scroll down.
To get a code for an opt-in form, you'll first need to sign up with an email marketing service provider such as Total Send. The company allows you to collect email addresses, manage your lists and send email marketing to your subscribers. Once your email marketing account is set up, log in and follow the instructions in the company's help section.
The following are a few tips for when you create an email marketing opt-in form:
• Generally speaking, the less information you require to opt in to email marketing, the more sign-ups you'll receive successfully. Most webmaster’s statistics find that requiring only an email address and first name from prospectives, or even just an email address, results in the highest email marketing opt-in subscription rates.
• You will also get better results if you offer an incentive for providing your email address. Many merchants find that delivering a free e-book, redeemable voucher or free download encourages more sign-ups to email marketing.
• You’ll be able to split test your email marketing opt-in form. Try designing 2 different versions of your email marketing opt-in form that will be displayed randomly to visitors and will help you determine the most effective approach.
2. Include an opt-in option on your “About Us” page.
Don't stop with your home page. Include a second email marketing opt-in form on your “About Us” page. After all, visitors who arrive on this page have taken action to learn more about you and your business. Encourage them to get to know you even more by joining your email marketing list.
Consider the idea that by adding an opt-in form to the main text of your “About Us” page, you could see an increase of 400 percent in email newsletter sign-ups over a two-month period.
3. Add an opt-in form to your check-out process.
Your check-out page can be another logical placement for an email marketing opt-in form. If your customers are so invested in your brand that they're willing to pull out their credit cards, the chances are that they will be interested in receiving future discounts and other email marketing from you. For more information on integrating an email marketing opt-in form Into your sales process, check with your shopping cart provider. Many of today's top payment processers integrate smoothly with email marketing service providers. If this integration isn't available, you may need to use an external program or hire a developer to add the opt-in function. This shouldn't cost more than it’s worth, and you'll likely find the extra effort and expense worth the investment.
4. Integrate an opt-in function into your blog's comments section.
If you run a blog, you can integrate an email marketing opt-in box into the comments section. You'll be reaching people who have already demonstrated an interest in what you have to share.
Some providers of email marketing services offer blog-specific plugins that will let you add an opt-in feature quickly and easily.
5. Consider a pop-up advertisement form.
Another option is to present opt-in forms via pop-up advertisements. Although some people find pop-up ads irritating, their continued presence on some of the web's top sites can only mean that they're effective for at least some email marketers.
It's a judgment call. If you do decide to put email marketing opt-in forms in pop-ups, be sure to track your site's metrics carefully. What you want to see is an increase in opt-in email marketing subscriptions -- without a corresponding increase in your site's bounce rate.